The

Raven's

Nest

February

2024

Dear Nancy,

Blue Ridge Audubon Chapter has been really busy. We’ve managed the Beaver Lake Bird Sanctuary for over 30 years now and made a very special place out of land destined to be a strip mall. We created a fully accessible boardwalk, overlooks, parking lots, interpretive signs and gathering places. With the invaluable help of volunteers, we’ve installed bird houses, removed invasive plants, restored native plants, put up a tower for Chimney Swifts, managed the Ecofilter wetland and, most recently, improved the overlooks to facilitate better access and views for all. Our events there now range from the springtime Beaver Lake Bird Sanctuary Celebration to Moth Night in the summer with birding tours for all year-round.

But our reach doesn’t stop at Beaver Lake. We also host monthly Saturday bird outings at Owen and Jackson Parks. Our Birdathon has raised money for bird conservation for almost 15 years. We have a curriculum developed by UNCA Audubon’s Sarah Branagan for elementary school field trips to the sanctuary. We give countless presentations on topics like bird-friendly gardening and bird science to community organizations. Our Coalition for a Bird-Safe Asheville got the City of Asheville to turn off lights in city buildings to protect birds during their nocturnal migration periods, and that effort is now expanding to bring in businesses and homeowners. We trained college and high school students on how to conduct advocacy campaigns to help protect birds. We partnered with local coffee shops to promote using coffee from bird-friendly farms. Besides offering our own myriad programs, we participate in many events where we can bring attention to the initiatives that we believe are important for birds and the places they need to thrive.

All our work and outreach happens only because of our volunteers who generously give their time and talents to something they love and find important. We can do even more for birds with your help. See the articles below for more information on how you can get involved with your chapter. I look forward to meeting you at our Volunteer Meet and Greet on Sunday, March 3. Thanks for volunteering to help make Blue Ridge Audubon a great organization for the birds and the community!

John Koon

President, Blue Ridge Audubon

Volunteers raising the BLBS Chimney Swift tower

The 27^th annual Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) will take place Friday through Monday, February 16 to 19 and we’ve got a few special events lined up for folks to participate in this community science project. Launched in 1998 by the National Audubon Society and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, this project was the first to collect bird sightings data from the general public online. Scientists use information from the GBBC to compile data regarding winter distribution and abundance of birds. In 2023, checklists were submitted from over 200 countries and totaled 7,732 different species of birds!



Pick up your binos and join in the fun! Registered participants count birds for 15 or more minutes for one to four days and submit their lists. It's a free, fun activity for young or old, experienced birders or beginners. Birds can be counted in your own backyard or seen on an outing. For more information on how to register and participate go to https://gbbc.birdcount.org/.

Please join us for Great Backyard Bird Count activities! Blue Ridge Audubon will host two GBBC birding events, one at Owen Park on Saturday, February 17 at 9 a.m., and one at Beaver Lake Bird Sanctuary on Sunday, February 18 at 9 a.m. Both are free and open to the public with no reservations needed.

Also, join in on the fun at the North Carolina Arboretum's Great Backyard Bird Count Celebration on Saturday, February 17, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. They'll have beginner bird walks, bird crafts and live bird demonstrations available to the public. Blue Ridge Audubon will be hosting a table so come on out! This program is free but non-member parking fees apply. 

Join Blue Ridge Audubon Chapter at Zillicoah Brewery on the banks of the beautiful French Broad River. We’ll be hosting a Volunteer Social on Sunday, March 3, from 3-5pm. As we gear up for a busy spring and summer, we are actively seeking to have a new cadre of volunteers join our ranks and we’d love to have you involved. We have great volunteer opportunities for people who wish to work in the bird sanctuary; engage with kids by helping lead school field trips; work in the community to build support for Lights Out! Asheville; advocate for bird-friendly measures on Advocacy Day; and many other opportunities as well.  Our board members will be on hand to tell you all about our Chapter’s volunteer opportunities. We would love to meet with all of you who are interested in learning more about helping birds and our chapter.

If you just can’t wait and are ready to help now, please fill our Volunteer Survey Form or email us at blueridgeaudubon@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

See you at Zillicoah and bring your binoculars! We may see some early spring birds there. 

Do you want to do more for bird conservation and be involved in helping them on a local level? Do you have skills that you’d like to put to good use? Would you like to assist in keeping our vibrant chapter running? We welcome you to join us and become a Blue Ridge Audubon board member. We’ve got a lot of great initiatives and programs and could use your help. The time commitment isn’t onerous, with only nine board meetings a year. Board members choose to serve on various committees and help with our initiatives. The next board elections will be this May and we’re looking for prospective candidates now. Our Nominating Committee, Douglas Rao, Tom Tribble, and Marianne Mooney, would love to talk to you if you’re interested in joining the board, or know someone who might be interested. Please email us at blueridgeaudubon@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!



Photo of some 2019 board members at BLBS Celebration

If you are a bird-centric visitor to our Beaver Lake Bird Sanctuary like me, using the eBird app/site provides a wealth of data on bird species observed over the years. There is

another community science app/site that helps identify all types of flora and fauna that you might see in the sanctuary: iNaturalist.

The mobile app includes a species identification tool to help I.D. what you’ve encountered. It also functions as a guide to what other folks are seeing in the area. Even kids can use it to connect with nature.

Using iNaturalist, observations can be entered, and with peer review identification, become “research grade” data for science and conservation efforts. City Challenges and Bioblitz projects are supported to encourage species inputs at various locations/times.

Looking at the iNaturalist data already entered for the sanctuary, I made this summary for what has been reported and confirmed in addition to 69 bird species:

•    210 Plant species

•    170 Insect species

•    15 Arachnid species

•    14 Fungi species

•    9 Mammal species

•    8 Reptile species

•    2 Algae species

I encourage you to look into using iNaturalist. It's a great tool to expand your knowledge of nature.

* * *

Recent notable sightings at Beaver Lake include Ross’s Goose and Common Merganser.



Images:

Screenshot of iNaturalist.org for BLBS

Screenshot of iNaturalist mobile app for turtle observation at BLBS